"Federal and state investigators began closed-door interviews Monday in their probe of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, as a federal judge considered a suit filed by the United Mine Workers and two disaster victims who want the questioning done during a public hearing."

"A federal judge ordered a documentary filmmaker Thursday to turn over about 600 hours of raw footage from a film about a court fight over whether Chevron Corp. owes billions of dollars in damages for oil contamination in Ecuador."

"The Supreme Court on Tuesday forcefully struck down a federal law aimed at banning depictions of dog fighting and other violence against animals, saying it violated constitutional guarantees of free speech and created a 'criminal prohibition of alarming breadth.'"

"The only part of the [nuclear] summit, other than a post-meeting news conference, that was visible to the public was Obama's eight-minute opening statement, which ended with the words: 'I'm going to ask that we take a few moments to allow the press to exit before our first session.'"

The Mine Safety and Health Administration's investigation of the Massey mine disaster in West Virginia will be held in secret -- despite efforts by news media to open such investigations to the public.

A Tennessee-based chemical company, cited and fined by New Mexico authorities for environmental violations there, won $75,000 in punitive damages in its SLAPP suit against a community activist for what it claimed were defamatory public presentations.